Cool! With fan projects like this and the Dungeon Index, Paizo should start having more time on their hands to just produce adventures! :)
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The Dungeon Index at http://intwischa.com/dungeon/ now has issues from #1 through #139. Now that I'm done with data entry, I'm going to start adding some of the cool features people have been suggesting.
Boccob = The DM
Yeah, I know I sound like a broken record, but I'm working hard for it :) Visit http://intwischa.com/dungeon/ for a searchable index of Dungeon issues from 18-139. (I hope to get issues 1-17 in this weekend!) I spent time over the last two days typing in all the blurbs from 18-81, so even though I haven't played these 2E (and basic, and Marvel Super Heroes, and...) adventures, the names are resonating with me. Stop by http://intwischa.com/dungeon/ to test drive the index. You can even search by author--for instance, type "Randy Maxwell" into the "adventures" search area to see the 12 adventures he wrote since Issue 18. Have fun with it! --Charlie White
What about Gnomes? Who listens to what gnomes have to say, anyway?
This is very, very nice, probably one of the best online indexes that I've seen. Thanks! I put a lot of work into it. I appreciate the feedback. 1. Ability to Search by Author. This will come as soon as I put author data in. Soon, I hope! :) 2. Identify the adventures as part of the AP or Campaign Arc. This should be included in the notes--try using the filter "Age of Worms," and you should get the appropriate adventures. 3. Identify any sequels Hmm... perhaps I could hyper-link through sequels. I'll file this one away! 4. Alphabetize staring with "A" instead of "Z." It does by default--if you click on a column header, it will re-sort in the opposite direction (try sorting by issue number, setting, etc...) Otherwise, I really like what I see; I'm adding this to my bookmarks as soon as I get home. BTW, I pretty much have issues 1-fiftysomething at home, if you need any assistance. One of my coming features will be the ability for other to update, so I might call on you to do some of the older issues. Please come to http://intwischa.com/forums/ to continue this discussion; I'll post your suggestions there, and I'd like to keep in touch! Thanks,
Thanks for the effort. The database is cool. I'd find it even more useful if I could search by terrain type (thier urban, wilderness, etc descriptors). Thanks for the feedback! I'm trying to keep a list of popular requests at http://intwischa.com/forums/; this one is definitely up there! As I write, I'm also populating back issues; I had a former Dungeon author stop by the site today and say that he only uses Issues 1-81 :) Keep the recommendations coming. I've put a lot of work into this, but I want it to be useful--i.e.: I'll put a lot more work into it to keep people happy :) http://intwischa.com/dungeon/
I'm sure you have worked quite hard on that spreadsheet, but it is just a pain to use. What is it with people using spreadsheets for databases? It's the square peg, round hole syndrome. Spreadsheets are just not made for databases. I agree. That's why I created the online index, which is database-driven. http://intwischa.com/dungeon/
"Add one for Eberron," he said from the shadows.
Since the 30th anniversary issue didn't come through with their promised index, I made one myself (with some help from friends with data population). Visit http://intwischa.com/dungeon/ for an index of issues 82-139, complete with level ranges, setting, and notes. The project is in beta, and I have a number of features I want to implement over the next few months. However, I'm happy to implement other requests--please drop by my forums at http://intwischa.com/forums/ to let me know what you think! (And, dear Paizo legal staff, please don't sue me for borrowing your adventure descriptions! :))
Thanks for the feedback. I plan to continue working on the Dungeon Index at http://intwischa.com/dungeon/, adding the features you're asking for (in addition to many others). Feel free to drop by my forum at http://intwischa.com/forums/ to make comments about the project! By the way, Thanis, I appreciate your index here--if you don't mind, I'm going to do a quick copy and paste job to use your setting and author data.
*pout* How 'come I didn't see any of that before I did this: http://intwischa.com/dungeon/
We used a 28 point buy for a 4 player party. We just had our first casualty, and that was due to the party coming together as if they were magnets after they got hit with a fireball. They're lucky the second fireball only killed one of them. So, yeah, I wouldn't go over 28.
I have had to use an alternate system for the one char who makes items, but other than that it has gone quite well. Details!
Irony?I think Wizards needs to fire there edditer because a lot of there products have some grade school errors. nah...
Thanks for that input--I've studied that pretty closely. Unfortunately, in the description for invisibility, I do not find a clear ruling. I'll rephrase the question: Is an "attack" an attempt to harm someone, or is it the act of harming someone? (Or, better yet, is it defined clearly somewhere in the rules? Please? :))
:) I wish a pat answer was good enough here. This is not a debate about play, this is a discussion between 2 DMs about what the books say.
A follow-up: If you melee attack a foe from a hidden position, and miss, but are allowed a second attack, is the foe denied her Dex bonus to AC on the second attack?
A fellow DM and I disagree on the conditions of an invisible creature becoming visible from an attack. One interpretation is that swinging a weapon and missing is not an attack, and thus, the invisible creature remains invisible. The other interpretation is that the intent to harm a foe, whether successful or not, is an attack, and the invisible creature becomes visible. Which interpretation is correct? Can rules and precident be cited so this argument can be put to rest?
Hey, I'm just asking for rules clarification... I'm not defending any classes. And, just so I can prove I'm 1) not in middle school,
my next PC will be aiming for the Dread Pirate PrC in Eberron--my DM is allowing "Dread Sky Pirate." Now that I think about it, that would have really gotten me excited in the 1980s, too...
Marc Chin speaks the truth. :) however, Vith does not ;)
Thanks for the clarification. I wish I would have had this argument at hand three hours ago, before taking 2d6 sneak attack damage twice :)
The special ability for ghost step indicates that the ninja (Complete Adventurer) becomes invisible. It does not indicate that this invisibility goes away when the ninja attacks, as per the invisibility spell. Does this effect last until the beginning of the ninja's next turn? Or should I just make life easier, and rule that the ninja has no place in D&D?
Thanks. My question regarding that point becomes this: Do all TWF attack occur simultaneously, or does one come before another?
A'My is an unsuspecting fighter, looking for an opponent who has just winked out of existance. B'Ob is a rogue with the TWF feat who has just quaffed a potion of invisibility. B'Ob sneaks up on A'My, and attacks her with both weapons. Here's the rub: Does B'Ob get to add sneak attack damage for each weapon? I don't want opinions, or colorful explanations of why he does or does not; I want references to rules. Thanks!
I've always found that NPCing a mute or Intelligence 8 character is useful. Even though we started with the traditional four, I threw in a really fricking idiotic cleric for Whispering Cairn to give the party some healing love. I intentionally killed him by the end of it. If you're going with three, do the same, but keep him alive. Just make sure she fights for an equal share of treasure and such.
So... I'll be running this in 10 days, and I'm not sure what the best way is yet. I like the idea of the survival checks with a party of kenku at the beginning and the boss at the end. I'm thinking about drawing a few different "lost areas," small mazes riddled with secret doors that the players will fight in when they fail their survival checks. This way, I can capatilze on the thrill of Kenku "walking through walls" without all the boredom of mapping a maze. In many ways, this would be like traditional wilderness gaming. But, I've got 10 days. I'm open to suggestions.
My party gave the temple ample time to muster ALL of its resources into the battle room, but killed the person on his way to release the boar. In trying to be a good DM, I reasoned that the temple would assume the boar had been released, and did not send another NPC to release it. The party found the boar, and slammed the door in its face. The party then moved to the temple, and the fighter reasoned that the odds were against them, and shut the door behind them. They moved through the "apartments" area, and prepared for a fight. In the interest of moving action along, I flanked the party--first, sending waves of tiefling archers and zombies at them, filling the area with darkness, and making the party use a lot of resources. This was followed up by the clerics and Theldrik moving in. The party held their ground--a good use of a scroll of call lightning from the party artificer took out one of the clerics, while the party wizard held the other cleric, a tiefling, and Theldrick off with a well-placed grease in the hallway. The fighter and the rogue held off the zombies and the other tieflings with good blows and excellent use of full defense actions--I reasoned that it was beyond the zombie's tactics to overrun the defender, which would have certainly turned the tide in battle. The rogue was almost killed when the fighter rushed the greased clerics and grappled Theldrik. Again, I tried to behave as the Mockery Monks would--it seemed that they would defend Theldrik. The male cleric and tiefling joined the grapple, and the fighter held his own! I wanted to keep Theldrick as an NPC for later, so I had pre-determined that he would run at 1/3 HP. It was a wonderful scene--he escaped the grapple, crawled through the grease on hands and knees, and got to his feet. He ripped off a necklace--a symbol of his status, and flung it at the male cleric, shouting "You're in charge now!" before fleeing the scene. The wizard used a potion to heal the rogue, who made effective use of sneak attacks against the other grapplers. The party finished off all the combatants but the zombies. Here, we were pretty much at a point where the zombies were killable, but would have taken a long time... I decided that it would simply not have been fun to continue combat. The main bad guys had been defeated, and the zombies just were not a compelling enemy. So, I had the zombies retreat to the temple and stoically stand guard--the players took a few potshots, but realized they were safe, and quickly re-grouped and healed up, then commandered a bedroom and recovered. Theldrick, on his way out, released the boar. He also took the lift up to the surface, leaving the party with no way out. I intend to resolve this situation by rewarding the players for a good deed--they had subdued one of the human cultists, who I played as a Diamond Lake youth. After getting information from him, they told him he had fallen in with a bad crowd, and to go home to mom and dad. I'm going to end TFoE with Dad and the boy coming down to the temple so Dad can "have a talk" with Theldrik (who is BTW long gone). The elevator will be down at this point, and Dad & Boy will witness the Overgod Aspect rising from the dark pool... I love DMing :) In any case, enough bragging about my party. You're in a bind, and I'd hate to see you stop playing AoW because of one bad TPK. Perhaps you could borrow something from my campaign--one of the cultists witnessed the slaughter of the players, and became horrified with the cult--he'd never really believed they were capable of that. He goes to the surface, and, not knowing what to do, goes to the smartest man in town for help. Together, the boy and Allustan try to assemble a team to clear out the mine and save Diamond Lake. Perhaps one of your players could even take on the role of the defector cultist (a monk, cleric, or fighter), and you could help the players out with a bit of tactics knowledge from this perspective.
As others have said elsewhere, I'm struggling with a way to increase the importance of HoHR in this campaign. After reading Baker's "City of Towers" novel, I'm starting to get an idea... Forget the doppelgangers in Sharn for HoHR. What you need for PC sabotage is a possession. I've got a warforged fighter who is a power-monger. I think I'm going to introduce a fiend (either possessing the faceless one, or later sometime in Blackwall) who will possess the fighter, and give him a +4 to Str. The fiend will dangle this to try to win over the fighter, and then start to suggest some horrible things--ultimately, trying to lure the players to the illithid in Sharn for some horrible purpose. Still trying to figure out the tie to AoW. Perhaps the illithid (I can't remember its name) has heard of Kyuss-Kashtaka, and wants to find what the players know about him. Perhaps the illithid is trying to impress the cult by eliminating a threat. I'll deal with that later. In any case, I'm going to keep the doppelganger feel a bit with some changelings, but the PC swap will probably be a possession rather than a shapeshifter.
We use online forums to communicate between games, so about a month before we started, I information overloaded my characters with Diamond Lake stuff. I also made all but one of the characters have connections with other NPCs in the town. The first adventure consisted of no dice, just talking, so the players could find voices for their characters. It ended with two of the characters in prison :) Allustan and Smenk conspired to free them--the favor they owed Smenk came in handy later in the campaign. I think it is a pity that there is so much info about Diamond Lake, and relatively little time spent there--take advantage of it while you have it. It's a fun town. If you've got four or fewer people, it might not be a bad idea to to get them to level 2 (or close to it) before you start Whispering Cairn.
We're doing the standard 4 PC thing. A human artificer, warforged fighter, changling rogue/fighter, changling wizard. They did The Whispering Cairn with an NPC elf favored soul, but I took him out when the party was mature enough to get by on their own. They still need a healer--the artificer burned through 40 charges of a wand of Cure Light Wounds (1/3 were successful) in the Keeper's caves in 3FoE.
I'm also considering swapping Marzena with Flamewind the gynosphynx from Xen'Drik, who currently resides at Morgrave. As I said, I'm running Blackwall in Q'Barra. Flamewind, who holds a great interest for the draconic prophecy, has been researching possible links between Kyuss-Kashtaka and the prophecy. Her research has uncovered evidence of Kyuss worms in Q'Barra, and so she has gone to investigate. Meanwhile, Allustan has been surreptitiously writing to Morgrave, trying to find out if they know anything about the worms. (In my campaign, the players lost the worm from Filge). Allustan hears about Flamewind's research, and so, after the party emerges from Dourstone's mines, he suggests the trip to Q'Barra to get their hands on another worm, and perhaps ask a few questions of Flamewind. Flamewind has allowed herself to be captured by the lizardfolk--she views it as a research opportunity. Of course, the soldiers think she needs to be rescued, and this provides the hook for the players to go. Flamewind will offer riddles to the players about the future of the Age of Worms, and probably accompany them back to the keep. The players will probably think this is the end of the adventure--that is, until a soldier yells that the lizardfolk are back! Hundreds of lizards surround Blackwall, and they are approaching quickly. Hope seems lost, when out of the clouds bursts an airship with a ladder going down to the keep. Allustan, who used his teleport scroll to escape earlier on, stands at the top of the ladder, yelling for the players and soliders to come to safety. The keep is overrun as the airship lifts off, pulling the party to safety at the last moment... Now THAT feels like pulp to me!
I'm keeping things pretty much as Keith Baker suggests in the suppliments, with Kyuss as Kashtaka, although I am moving Blackwall to Q'Barra--give the PCs a chance to hop the Lightning Rail to Zilargo, then take a ship around Valenar and up to New Galifar. I'm introducing some ideas of the Draconic Prophecy--the Age of Worms threatens the dragons much as it threatens humanity. My players have named their party the Windforged (after the Wind Dukes in the first adventure), now I'm planting some references to "forged winds" in ancient texts. Filge was going to be a dark anti-hero, but the party killed first and asked questions later :) I've introduced an Inquisitive friend of his who is trying to figure out who the changling murderers in Diamond Lake are--we've got two changlings in the party. Finally, and this has been suggested elsewhere--I'm using "bad guy monologues." If you're party abides them, they're great for building that distinctive Eberron feel. This one was delivered by Grallak Kur (a Dolgaunt Monk 4 in my campaign) in 3FoE as he stood throwing mushrooms into the fire:
Thanks for the input. The wild shape/polymorph thing is the best argument I've heard. If the sword (an intelligent construct) can be affected by the spell, can an unconscious warforged which is carried by the target of the spell also be affected? (I'd rule no, but why not?)
Maybe this should be an Ask the Sage. I've not found a satisfactory answer to the question. I'll post the part of the Enlarge Person spell in question first, then ask my question. All equipment worn or carried by a creature is similarly enlarged by the spell. This text does not make clear if the effect of equipment worn or carried applies only when the spell is cast, or if it applies to all equipment worn or carried by an enlarged creature at any point during the spell's duration. I've heard arguments made about the tenses of the verb in this sentence, but I see no compelling linguistic argument to suggest a time frame on the effect of enlarging equipment. To phrase this in the form of a question: What happens when an enlarged human picks up a medium longsword? Does it stay medium, or does it become large while the spell is in effect? As a complete aside, is an intelligent weapon immune to this effect? Does it get a fortitude save if it does not want to enlarge?
Nifty hack. I'd love to see a rating system, because I don't want to see a project like this pulled down under the weight of poorly designed and unedited NPCs. Two bugs: 1) In Benign Encounters, Taverns, there is an entry "kindly to your type.'"; nothing else on the line. I'm guessing something involving quote marks is goign on here. 2) I am getting some duplicates listed in benign encounters. I know mysql lets you do "SELECT DISTINCT", but most of my command line SQL knowledge stops beyond that ;)
And to the nay-sayers: My party mage just posted this on the messageboards we use to communicate in-character when not playing. This is during 3FoE, right after clearing out Theldrick's Mockery temple. They are reading his journal entries (which I slightly tweaked, but the part he is analyzing is straight out of the magazine. Grallak Kur, some type of abomination perhaps? A beholder? I do not know. This whole Overgod claptrap sounds like a ruse to get the assistance of the gullible to build some other type of abomination. The more I read the more I suspect the powers that toppled the Dhakaani Empire are behind this. a slumbering power that must be awoken This could refer to several powers trapped in Kyber, all of them more dangerous than anything you could possibly imagine. But again the evidence of the Dolgaunts and this whole plan to combine the gods hints at the Daelkyr. My players obviously feel like they are in Eberron :)
I'd think about some horrid animals rather than iron defenders. Iron defenders imply some sort of spellcaster who created them, and this will raise questions about who/where the caster is, as well as why they are still defending when the caster is long gone. Some horrid badgers or weasels could really make the Eberron feel come home. I do like the idea of a living spell in place of the lurking strangler.
I'll add mine to the mix--could you send your conversions to white@curlytops.org?
I'm currently adapting 3FoE, using many of the suggestions offered here. One thing I'm trying to do is consolidate encounters to make the occur less often but with greater intensity. In the Labrynth of the Shadow area, I'm toying with the idea of a cloud of Living Hideous Laughter rolling around the labrynth. When the PCs are trying to be stealthy around the kenku, they'll have another thing to worry about :) Incidentally, to consolidate the Trickery encounters, I'm moving almost all the tieflings and clerics into the large room with the balcony. I've replaced the worshippers in area 3 with human commoners, and am going to have them "attack" the players in conjunction with the skeletons. This should prove to be a nice hack-n-slash chopfest for the players, which will hopefully make them overconfident for the rest of the adventure.
This is just getting all the more rich with each continued thought. I'm giddy with the possibilities in this adventure. The PCs have to dress to impress. How does the Juggernaut, the unfeeling, uncharasmatic war machine, go about doing this? I think it is time for an effiminant gnome to make a spiked tank man look just fabulous. There will be no guest more impressive than the eight foot tall metal man with a carefully constructed gold filagree corsage soldered to his breast. Oh, how my players will hate me... :)
Thanks for the input. This brings up a HUGE point that I hadn't thought about before. Of all my PCs, the Warforged is the most likely to insult Zeech. One of the many ways he could insult the prince is by not eating... even if he did eat the most likely heavily poisoned food, it would have no effect on him. So, how would Zeech try to dispatch a guest who had insulted him, when he couldn't just poison him? One of the elegant points about the poison is that it doesn't kick in until hours after consumption. I could send Blessed Angel assissins after the warforged, but that becomes a party problem, not an individual problem. Maybe I'll just take advantage of the fact that the 'Forged doesn't sleep, and have Zeech invite him back for a "nightcap." Then, the dismantling will begin in earnest :) On a side note--I'd like to commend the editors and authors at Paizo for being so attentive to these boards. It is wonderful to be able to ask a question about how to handle something in an adventure, and getting a response from the author of that adventure. The forums are a tremendous value added to Dungeon. (I just wish they were faster :))
In my mind, Warforged==Eberron. So, yeah, I'm playing in Eberron.
My players are too lazy to do campaign journal write-ups. We primarily use a forum to communicate; the journals are posted in a public area. Not too much else interesting here: [url]http://curlytops.org/forums/[/url]
This brings up something that I know will come up in my campaign... one of my characters will be a Warforged juggernaut by the time PoR comes around. How would Zeech respond to such a character? On the one hand, you've got a non-disarmable tank which is a threat to the guests. On the other hand, you've pretty much got the best freak money can buy (or CAN'T buy, after the Treaty of Thronehold), which has to impress Zeech just a tad. Thoughts?
I share your concern about my PCs not relinquishing their weapons. I think this is a psychological response built up to DM abuse. What happens when we say "No weapons allowed?" The first time, the PC says, "That's reasonable." Then the half-fiend awakened dire badger attacks them. The second time, they look over the shoulder of the guy asking for weapons to see if there are any badgers in the room. One thing that has to be done to make Redhand successful is to create an atmosphere where PCs are not punished for giving up their weapons. Look for places in AoW where PCs can be asked to leave their weapons behind--restaraunts, inns, even the houses of more noble folk (maybe even Allustan in Diamond Lake). Don't punish them when they give up their weapons--if a combat encounter MUST occur, turn down the DC, and/or look for ways to provide improvised weapons. Don't punish them by having a crooked bellhop borrow their weapons. My players aren't to Sharn, "The Free City," yet, so I can only give advice for Diamond Lake. Here, I'd suggest not letting them into the Emporium or the Governor-Mayor's house armed. Also, I would think that none of the mine managers would abide armed folk in their house who were not being paid to protect them. In general, players shouldn't be allowed to enter houses of law enforcement, barracks, or prisions armed, either. Set up trusted NPCs to man your "weapon check" booths in these areas. Maybe your PCs will even want to hire a henchman who will stand guard over their goods while they are away--if your players feel this is necessary, giving them a cheap henchman is a good way to quell their fears. You may even want to play up the "hero" aspect; have some kids and young adults celebrate the party's arrival in town, and make a few of them groupies. This shouldn't be enough to render moot the Leadership feat, but one or two of them might do simple favors for more charasmatic members of the party. Run encounters with them, start them at "Friendly," if they are made "Helpful," I'd think they'd watch their favorite heroes' weapons for a little while.
It seems pretty gauche to discuss stealing a product on the website of the creators of that product. Just my two coppers.
Hmmm... Very interesting. Since I've already kind of made the agreement with my player that he can do this, I'd feel like a bit of a chump going back on it now. Of course, there is another option--the party could go on a mission to Xen'Drik to uncover the mythical infusion "Enlarge Construct." Or, perhaps the party wizard could research such a spell. If I were to allow the creation of such a spell, would it break the game (for that matter, does allowing "Enlarge Person" to be used on a warforged break the game?) If such a spell existed, would it be the same level as Enlarge Person, or would it be a higher level?
A warforged is a living construct, not just a construct. I see nothing in the description of the warforged that states that enlarge person does not apply to it. So, I think allowing Enlarge Person on a warforged is not a house rule. Any other thoughts on this? Also, I've never found anything in the PrC requirements that state that a pre-req cannot be magically gained. So, I don't think the rules prevent a permanent enlarge person from becoming a hulking hurler. If such a character became medium or smaller, by any means, then yes, I would rule that they lost all class features. I'm not sure if this is handled elsewhere, but I would allow them to keep hit dice, skills, and feats, and continue to treat them as the same level. I would prevent them from using class abilities. Back on topic, thanks for the feedback. I most certainly will not drop a magic item custom tailored for a character in a treasure hoarde. Any treasure that I "design" for a character will be firmly in the hands of their enemies ;)
More info on the character in question. He is a Warforged Fighter in an Eberron-flavored Age of Worms campaign. He was found, disabled, in one of Luzane Parrin's mines, with few memories. He shortly found out that he remembered how to fight. He plans to become a Warforged Juggernaut first. The party mage will cast a permanent Enlarge Person on him to satisfy the Hulking Hurler requirement for a large character, and then he'll start levelling in that. For color, the party artificer (the one who found him) now infuses him with Enlarge Person, and he is getting "addicted" to it. I'd like some options for ranged weapons that don't cost feats for him. I think he'd have more fun with his character if he could get a unique magic weapon. Thanks for all your input. I'll check back here for more.
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